


Broken Silence

by marinaalexis



Category: Pretty Little Liars
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-21
Packaged: 2018-09-09 10:12:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8886961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marinaalexis/pseuds/marinaalexis
Summary: The fifth little liar. The keeper of secrets. The one who could be trusted. Saige's life is shattered when her best friend, Alison DiLaurentis, goes missing. When the mysterious A threatens to reveal her secrets a year later, she reluctantly reunites with her old friends. But Saige knew Ali better than anyone...and not all of the secrets that she's keeping are her own. AU





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 

Labor Day meant three things: The end of summer vacation, the last days of warm weather, and the perfect opportunity for one more party.

Five girls were taking full advantage of that fact as they danced around in Spencer Hastings’ barn, blasting music and grabbing handfuls of buttery popcorn from the bowl on the table. Four of the girls were full of smiles and laughs, but one perched on the edge of the couch wasn’t quite up to the fun.

Saige Bosler checked her phone for the fifth time. Still nothing. She glanced nervously at the door to the barn and gnawed on her thumbnail, even though Alison always said that it was a disgusting habit.

But Alison wasn’t here. And that was the problem. Saige set her phone down and watched Spencer and their other friends, Aria Montgomery, Hanna Marin, and Emily Fields as they laughed and danced around the room. None of them looked the slightest bit concerned over the whereabouts of their missing leader.

They were used to this. Ali had plenty of secrets, plenty of other places to be. She’d been ditching them more and more lately. They knew to expect lateness from her, with only a vague explanation when she finally did show up.

But it was different with Saige. They told each other everything (well, almost everything). Saige couldn’t remember the last time she didn’t know exactly where Ali was, exactly what she was doing and who she was with. That’s how their relationship worked, because that’s what being best friends meant.

Saige looked once more at her phone and felt another prickle of nerves. If Ali had ditched the sleepover without inviting Saige along, something wasn’t right.

At last, Aria sat down on the couch and looked up at her. “Where’s Ali?” she called above the music.

“Yeah, you guys are usually joined at the hip,” Spencer observed.

Saige shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know. She didn’t tell me.”

Her four friends exchanged glances. Even though they were all best friends, everyone knew that what Ali and Saige had was special.

But before anyone could question it, or start to worry, the music abruptly shut off and the lights flickered. “What was that?” Hanna cried, just as the lights completely cut out.

“It must be the storm,” Spencer said, grabbing a match and lighting a nearby candle. Aria clicked on a flashlight.

The storm could explain the power outage and the sound of the wind whistling outside. But when a loud _bang_ resonated through the barn, all five girls leapt to their feet.

“I think someone’s out there,” Aria whispered frantically, gesturing toward the door.

“Seriously?” Emily squeaked.

“It’s probably nothing,” Saige tried to reason, but even she felt her heart hammer as the girls huddled together. They walked slowly toward the door, screaming as another loud knocking followed the first.

They stopped, Aria holding out the flashlight to illuminate the entrance to the barn. As they watched, the door began to creak open. Saige’s stomach turned over.

_“Gotcha!”_

Alison DiLaurentis bounded into the room, her blond hair flowing out behind her and a radiant smile on her face. Everyone shrieked, falling into each other in relief. “That’s so not funny, Alison,” Spencer gasped.

“I thought it was hilarious, girls,” Ali crowed, leading the way back into the barn.

Saige followed, slapping her a high five. “Oh my God,” she breathed, pressing her other hand to her chest. “That was awesome.” As the girls settled back down, with Ali and Saige squeezing into one chair, she leaned over and whispered, “Where have you been?”

Ali hesitated so briefly that Saige almost missed it. “My mom was acting like a psycho,” she muttered back, in a voice low enough that the others couldn’t hear. “You know how she gets.”

Saige gave her a sympathetic look. Ali’s mother, Jessica DiLaurentis, was majorly intense about ninety-eight percent of the time. It made her eternally grateful for her own laidback, easygoing parents.

“We thought you weren’t going to show,” Emily said, grinning at Ali in obvious relief.

“Calm down, killer,” Ali joked. “I don’t have to be by your side every second, do I?”

Saige chuckled – Emily was more loyal to Ali than anyone, and usually she owned that with pride. But Emily bit her lip and looked away, the smile slipping off of her face.

“Let’s get this party started,” Ali said, bumping her shoulder into Saige’s. “Somebody turn the music up!”

Spencer did as she asked, and Ali grabbed a bottle of tequila and an empty glass from the table. She gave the bottle an approving look. “Nice work, Han. I guess that baggy sweater really did do you good.”

Hanna gave an obviously forced smile, and Saige turned her head away to hide a wince. The nice part of being Ali’s number one best friend was that she never had to worry about being the victim of Ali’s snide comments and sometimes nasty jokes. But it also meant that she didn’t feel comfortable speaking up when Ali made fun of someone else.

By the time she turned back, Ali had filled the glass and was holding it out to her. “Want to start us off?”

“I’m good,” Saige said immediately, giving her a look. Ali knew she avoided drinking whenever possible, and she also knew why.

With anyone else, Ali would have pushed her buttons until she gave in. But never with Saige. “Fine, party pooper,” she teased, then leaned forward to Aria instead. “Your turn.”

Aria grabbed the glass and took a long sip. “Careful, Aria,” Spencer laughed. “If you drink too much you’ll start spilling all your secrets.”

“Friends share secrets,” Ali said with a smile, squeezing Saige’s hand. “That’s what keeps us close.”

…

A crash of thunder woke Saige several hours later. She sat up groggily, rubbing at her eyes until she could see well enough to look around. Hanna and Emily were curled up on either ends of the couch, and Spencer and Aria were slumped on the floor. All four of them were fast asleep.

But someone was missing. “Ali?” Saige whispered, climbing out of the chair that they had both fallen asleep in. After a quick look around the barn, it became apparent that Ali was gone – and the door was wide open.

Lightning lit up the room and Saige shuddered, fumbling for her phone to check her messages. Nothing from Ali. She felt a prickle of annoyance that morphed quickly into concern. Ali wouldn’t duck out of a sleepover without at least telling her, at most dragging her along. She just _wouldn’t._

So what had happened?

Saige walked to the door and peered out into the Hastings’ sprawling yard. It was completely empty, almost eerily calm despite the oncoming storm. “Ali?” she called again, taking a few reluctant steps outside.

She glanced in the direction of the DiLaurentis’ house next door. The light in Ali’s room was on, and she felt her nerves settle down. Maybe Ali hadn’t felt well and decided to go home. Maybe she’d forgotten her phone in the barn so hadn’t been able to text Saige and explain.

That had to be it. Saige walked across the Hastings’ lawn and wiggled through the bushes that separated the properties. She scooped two pebbles from the DiLaurentis’ flowerbed and tossed them at Ali’s window, their secret code for when they wanted the other to sneak out at night and talk.

Saige stared up at the window for a few endless minutes, tapping her hand against her thigh anxiously. Why would the light be on if Ali was asleep? And anyway, she slept lightly – and _always_ woke up when Saige threw pebbles at the window.

She turned away, pressing a hand to her fluttering stomach. It was only then that she finally let herself consider the possibility that something was wrong. Maybe the best answer would be to go tell Ali’s parents that she was missing from the sleepover.

Conflicted, she pulled up a new text to Ali: _Where r u???_

The message went through, but no reply came. Saige looked back at the barn, unsure. If something really had happened to Ali, she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she didn’t do everything she could to find her. And that meant telling Mr. and Mrs. DiLaurentis, maybe even calling the police.

But on the other hand…what if Ali really did ditch the sleepover? Maybe she was hanging out with the older girls she’d recently started texting. Or maybe…Saige grimaced, pressing a hand against her mouth. Maybe she was with Ian. They’d been at Hilton Head together _just this morning,_ after all.

As she walked slowly back toward the barn, Saige thought back to a conversation she’d had with Hanna a few weeks ago. When they were out shopping, Hanna had stared at her reflection in the dressing room mirror, her stomach puffing out over a pair of too-small jeans, and confided in Saige that she worried that Ali was getting ready to ditch them.

Saige always figured she was safe from that fate. She and Ali were too close for either of them to ever move on from the other. But now she wasn’t so sure. If Ali was off meeting up with her secret older boyfriend without even telling her, was their friendship really as tight as she thought?

“Saige?”

She snapped out of her thoughts, for a moment thinking it had been Ali calling out to her. But it was Spencer, standing at the door to the barn. She’d walked all the way back without even realizing it.

Saige walked over quickly. Aria stood beside Spencer, looking worried. Hanna and Emily watched from further into the room. “Where’s Ali?” Aria called.

“I don’t know,” Saige admitted for the second time that night, folding her arms. “I woke up a few minutes ago. I was just out looking for her.”

“You couldn’t find her?” Emily spoke up hoarsely. Her face was white with fear.

Usually Saige would have rolled her eyes – obvious, much? – but she was too frightened to do anything but shake her head.

Spencer looked past her, staring out at the vast, dark yard in front of them. “Ali’s gone,” she said, her voice quiet and trembling. Saige felt her heart drop like a stone into her stomach at actually hearing it out loud.

And that was the beginning of the end.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

_One Year Later_

The hardest part was seeing her picture.

Saige could deal with the articles. The flowers outside the DiLaurentis’ house. The whispers of her name, as if no one could bring themselves to actually say it out loud.

But her picture…actually seeing her face, as vibrant and full of life as Saige remembered…it was too much to bear.

Normally it wasn’t an issue. All she had to do was avoid the places where she knew the faded “Missing” posters were hung and she’d be fine.

But today was September 1. She knew what the date meant. She knew that it had been one year since Ali disappeared, since her entire world collapsed.

And yet her heart still stopped as soon as she saw the newspaper.

_ONE YEAR LATER AND STILL MISSING._

The headline itself took Saige’s breath away, but she took one look at the picture beneath it and felt like she had been punched in the stomach. It was Ali’s last school picture.

…

_“Wear this one.”_

_Saige caught the lavender top that Ali had flung in her direction and held it out in front of her. She wrinkled her nose instinctively. “It’s so pale. It’ll make me look like a ghost.”_

_“It won’t. I swear,” Ali insisted, pulling a blue sleeveless blouse carefully down over her perfectly styled hair. She spun around in front of the mirror and smiled._

_Saige watched, unsure and a little envious. Ali somehow managed to look amazing in everything, but of course she’d found a shirt that made her blue eyes look particularly bright. She played with a strand of her own light brown hair, which Ali had straightened that morning._

_“Try in on,” her best friend urged, crossing her arms and raising her eyebrows in exasperation. “You’re gonna make us late.”_

_Saige sighed and pulled on the shirt. She and Ali were meeting Aria, Hanna, Emily, and Spencer in the bathroom before school started for one last pre-pictures primping session._

_She tugged the top over her stomach and stepped back to take in her reflection. “Oh…wow.”_

_Ali clapped her hands and bounded over to stand beside her. “Why do you ever doubt me? I told you. It’s perfect.”_

_…_

Saige blinked back tears and kicked the newspaper out of her way, sending it flopping into the grass. That purple shirt was tucked into the back corner of her closet, alongside all of the other clothes that she had “borrowed” from Ali…clothes that she would never be able to give back.

She fell into the front seat of her car and heaved a long sigh. _It’s going to be a long day,_ she told herself firmly. _So you’d better get used to thinking about her._

But aching pains shot through her stomach all the same. She couldn’t even bring herself to glance in the direction of Ali’s house when she drove down her street. The roof of the barn peeked out from behind the trees next door.

_A year._

Saige drove to school in a daze, forcing herself to think about her schedule for the new year and all of the activities that she planned on joining instead of dwelling on the day that stole her best friend away from her.

But once she pulled into the student parking lot, her phone was in her hand and she was typing out a new text before she even knew what she was doing.

_Hey. I know it’s been a long time since we talked…but I’m sure you remember what today is. Let me know how you’re doing. I’m here for you._

Saige stared down at the message, and at the familiar name of the recipient. Then she deleted the text, shoved her phone in her bag, and got out of the car.

…

She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting. A big remembrance set up in the front hallway, maybe. Or an assembly to share memories and reflect on what a terrible thing had happened.

She should have known better. To Saige, Ali was everything, basically a sister, almost like a part of herself. But to the rest of the student body, she was just the bitchy queen bee who had gone missing, like in the movies. Her absence probably made all of their lives easier. Saige clenched her fists at the thought and tried not to hate them all.

But that wasn’t all Ali was to _everyone._

Spencer was standing at her locker when Saige turned the corner, heading to her first period class. Her stomach lurched. It hadn’t happened intentionally, but after Ali’s disappearance the five remaining members of the group had kind of…drifted apart. And maybe it was because they were both so headstrong, or maybe because Spencer was always the first to stand up to Ali, but she and Saige had done more than just gradually stop talking.

Even so, today was different. Maybe things between them would be different, too.

Saige squared her shoulders and walked over. “Hey.”

Spencer looked up, her face registering obvious surprise. “Oh. Hey.”

“So how’s everything going?” Saige asked quietly, leaning against the locker beside her. “I mean, you know what today is, right?”

She hadn’t meant anything by it, but Spencer’s eyes hardened. “Of course I do. We all do.”

Taken aback but not necessarily surprised, Saige shook her head. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“You may have been closer to Ali than the rest of us, but that doesn’t mean we don’t miss her just as much as you do.” Spencer shut her locker door hard and spun around, walking briskly in the other direction with an armful of books.

Saige stared after her, dismayed. The words of their last fight echoed in her head, as clear as though it had happened just yesterday. She should have known better than to try to talk things out with Spencer on today of all days, when emotions were running so high.

But she couldn’t help but feel hurt all the same. Wondering if she really had acted like Ali’s disappearance meant more to her than to the others, both now and a year ago, she followed Spencer into their first period English classroom and sat as far from her as possible.

…

Saige walked into the lunch line after what was possibly the strangest first day of class in her life and nearly ran right into a very short, very familiar girl.

She stepped back and broke into a smile, despite herself. “Aria.”

Remembering Spencer’s reaction to seeing her, she braced herself, but Aria smiled back, reaching out to hug her. “Hey! I meant to say hi in English, but you kind of came in at the last minute.”

“I can’t believe you’re back,” Saige said, hugging her new textbooks awkwardly to her chest.

“I thought about calling,” Aria replied quickly, casting her eyes away. “But – “

“I know,” Saige cut in, feeling her face heat up. Why did everything about this day have to be so uncomfortable? “We lost touch. It would have felt weird.”

They both grabbed trays from the beginning of the lunch line. Aria slid a veggie burger onto hers, and Saige opted for a regular hamburger. “Emily told me you guys all stopped talking,” Aria commented, picking up two milk cartons and handing one to Saige.

“Not all at once. But yeah,” Saige confirmed as they exited the line and stepped into the cafeteria. “We hung out for a couple months after you moved and Ali…you know. But it just wasn’t the same.”

Aria nodded and turned away, gazing around the cafeteria. Saige frowned, wondering if she should invite her old friend to sit with her. Would that be totally awkward? They were getting along so far, but the tension between them was thick.

But Aria spoke up before she could make up her mind. “I’m sitting with Emily. Want to join?”

Saige blinked, startled. What was Aria trying to do, rebuild their old friend group or something? She thought of her conversation with Spencer that morning and held back a snort.

But would sitting with a few of her old friends for one day really be so bad? She glanced reluctantly in the direction of her usual table. She’d made some new friends after Ali, but it wasn’t the same. Nothing was.

“Sure,” she blurted out before she could think too hard about it. She followed Aria across the cafeteria, giving Emily a shaky smile as she sat down across from her.

The three girls sat in silence for a few long moments, staring down at their trays as they ate. Finally Saige cleared her throat and said quietly, “There are freshman sitting at our old table.”

Aria raised her head and Emily twisted around to look at the table at the very center of the cafeteria. Six fresh-faced, younger girls were giggling over something on one of their phones. Emily turned away, her expression pained as she whispered, “I can’t believe she’s really dead.”

Saige’s blood ran cold. Aria dropped her fork onto her tray. Emily glanced at them both, her eyes wide. “What? I mean, she has to be, right?”

Aria shook her head, letting out a small laugh. “You’re right. It’s just…no one’s ever said it out loud before.”

“Yeah,” Saige agreed, her voice small. She’d never even really let herself think about Ali having been killed that night. But it was the only thing that made sense. Before that awful night, they never went more than one day without talking. If Ali was alive, if she was out there somewhere, there was no way she wouldn’t have contacted her by now.

Aria smiled, reaching out and touching the string bracelet around Emily’s wrist lightly. “You still wear that everyday?”

“Ali wore hers,” Emily said defensively, closing her hand around it. “Up until she…”

“That was a good day,” Saige said, absent-mindedly tapping her fork against her tray. She should have worn that bracelet today, as her own little personal memorial to Ali. She was pretty sure it was buried somewhere in the bottom of her jewelry box.

A tense silence settled back over them. Suddenly desperate to change the subject, Saige blurted out, “So how about what happened in English? That was so weird.” She winced, remembering the loud echoing slam that the stack of books made when they slipped out of their new teacher’s hands and tumbled to the floor.

Emily chuckled and seemed to cheer up again, much to Saige’s relief. “He looked like he saw a ghost.”

“He was looking right at someone when he freaked out,” Saige added thoughtfully. “But I couldn’t really tell who.”

Aria stabbed a piece of pasta and shoved her fork in her mouth. “I’m sure it was nothing,” she said after a moment, staring down at the table.

Saige raised her eyebrows and looked away. For just a second, they had been having fun. Things had seemed almost…normal. But she shouldn’t have let herself go there. Things between them would clearly never be normal again.

…

The front door slammed behind her, and Saige dropped her backpack on the stairs in relief. One day down…and the rest of the year to go. She grimaced at the thought of the pile of homework already nestled in her bag and trudged up to her room. She dragged her laptop onto her lap. Immersing herself in AP Microeconomics would at least take her mind off of Alison and what this horrible day signified.

Her computer pinged with a new email alert, and Saige pulled up the screen, frowning. The sender was hidden, the subject line was blank, and the message consisted only of a link.

_Stupid spam,_ Saige thought, rolling her eyes, and was about to delete the email when the name of the link caught her attention.

[ _www.messageforums.com/the-bitch-is-dead_ ](http://www.messageforums.com/the-bitch-is-dead) _._

Suddenly nervous, she clicked the link, and the familiar layout of the message board popped up on the screen. At the top was the same picture of Ali that she had seen in the newspaper this morning…except this picture had been embellished with devil horns and red eyes.

Saige gasped as she scrolled quickly down the rest of the page. Post after post, all from anonymous screen names…and all about Ali.

_That bitch made my life hell. Now she can rot in it._

_September 1, 2009 proves karma is real._

_Good riddance Alison. Too bad no one misses you._

The words blurred before Saige’s eyes. She threw the laptop down onto the bed and leapt to her feet. Her legs were shaking so badly that she could barely get down the stairs.

How had she never seen that board before? There were _hundreds_ of posts, each one nastier than the next. She felt like she was going to throw up.

How dare those kids say those things. How dare they act like no one missed Ali, like her disappearance was a _good_ thing. So what if she called them names or made them feel bad once in a while? None of them knew the real her. None of them knew _anything._

Saige was standing in front of the liquor cabinet without really knowing how she got there. This day had been one misery after another, from the moment she stepped outside and saw that newspaper. She’d promised herself two summers ago that she’d never do this again, that she wouldn’t let herself go down that path.

But today called for an exception.

There was a small bottle of vodka partially hidden in the back of the cabinet, and she grabbed it. Her parents would never notice it was gone. She tipped her head back and downed half of the bottle in one swig. The liquid burned her throat the whole way down, but she welcomed the pain.

Saige’s phone beeped, and she wiped her mouth and set the half-full bottle down. Then she fished her cell phone out of her pocket. Maybe it was Aria or Emily. Maybe they actually did want to make an effort to start up a friendship again.

But the sender of the text was listed as _unknown._ Saige opened the message cautiously, promising herself that she would not be opening any more mysterious links. When she found out whatever stupid kid from her school sent her that first one…

But the text wasn’t a link. It was much worse.

_Careful, Saige! You wouldn’t want your little “problem” to resurface, would you? After all, you know what happened the last time you had a sip or two…and so do I. –A_


End file.
